FOLLOW THE SHEPHERD
By, Max Lucado

For sheep to sleep, everything must be just right. No predators. No tension in the flock. No bugs in the air. No hunger in the belly. Everything has to be just so.

Unfortunately, sheep cannot find safe pasture, nor can they spray insecticide, deal with frictions, or find food. They need help. They need a shepherd to “lead them” and help them “lie down in green pastures.” Without a shepherd, they can’t rest. Without a shepherd, neither can we.

In the second verse of the Twenty-third Psalm, David the poet becomes David the artist. His quill becomes a brush, his parchment a canvas, and his words paint a picture. A flock of sheep on folded legs, encircling a shepherd. Bellies nestled deep in the long shoots of grass. A still pond on one side, the watching shepherd on the other. “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters” Psalm 23:2 NKJV).

Note the two pronouns preceding the two verbs. He makes me… He leads me … Who is the active one? Who is in charge? The shepherd. The shepherd selects the trail and prepares the pasture. The sheep’s job-our job-is to watch the shepherd. With our eyes on our Shepherd, we’ll be able to get some sleep. “You will keep him is perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.” (Isaiah 26:3 NKJV)

May I show you something? Flip to the back of this book, and look at an empty page. When you look at it, what do you see? What you see is a white piece of paper. Now place a dot in the center of the sheet. Look at it again. Now what do you see? You see the dot, don’t you? And isn’t that our problem? We let the dark marks eclipse the white space.

We see the waves on the water rather than the Savior walking through them. We focus on our paltry provisions rather than on the One who can feed five thousand hungry people. We concentrate on the Dark Friday’s of crucifixion and miss the bright Sunday’s of resurrection.

Change your focus and relax. And while you’re at it, change your schedule and rest!

The other day my wife met a friend at a restaurant for coffee. The two entered the parking lot at the same time. When Denalyn stepped out of her car, she saw her friend waiving her over. Denalyn she was saying something, but she couldn’t hear a word. A jack-hammer was pounding pavement only a few feet away. She walked toward her friend, who, as it turned out, was just saying hello, and the two entered the restaurant.

When it came time to leave, my wife couldn’t find her keys. She looked in her purse, on the floor, in her friend’s car. Finally when she went to her car, there they were. Not only were the keys in the ignition, the car was running. It had been running the entire time she and her friend were in the cafe.

Denalyn blames the oversight on the noise. “Everything was so loud I forgot to turn it off.”

The world get’s that way. Life can get so loud we forget to shut it down. Maybe that’s why God made such a big deal about rest in the Ten Commandments.

—Traveling Light by Max Lucado, pgs. 39-41.